GARRIOCH: Senators fire senior VP Pierre McGuire after less than a year on the job


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The Ottawa Senators have shown Pierre McGuire the door after only 10 months on the job.

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Hired as the senior vice president of hockey development by late owner Eugene Melnyk, the 60-year-old McGuire was fired by the Senators Monday.

McGuire was informed of the decision Monday morning

Brought in July 12, 2021 after lengthy broadcasting career with NBC Sports, McGuire had been doing a lot of scouting for the organization in the last few months and had spent a great deal of time with the club’s AHL affiliate in Belleville.

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He signed a three-year deal with the organization, sold his house in Connecticut and moved to Ottawa. .

General manager Pierre Dorion had no comment.

The club did confirm McGuire “is no longer with the organization.”

The belief is the Senators didn’t feel McGuire was the right fit.

“We thank Pierre for his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours,” the club said in a statement Monday afternoon.

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Dorion would have had to get approval from the club’s three board of directions—Sheldon Plener, Lawrence Zeifman and John Miszuk—to make the move.

The decision to bring in McGuire caught the hockey world off guard. He was hired by Melnyk to help support Dorion in the evaluation of players. The signing of defenseman Michael Del Zotto as an unrestricted free agent last summer didn’t work out the way anybody expected.

The belief in hockey circles is that McGuire played a big role in that decision.

He had been with NBC since 2006, but started his broadcasting career in radio in 1997 as a color analyst on TSN radio’s Montreal Canadiens broadcasts for five seasons. He then worked for TSN as a color analyst on television for four years.

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As a former Senators’ pro scout and assistant coach, this was McGuire’s second turn with the organization. He started here in 1993 and was fired along with the rest of the coaching staff midway through the 1995 campaign.

It’s not known if anybody will be brought in to replace McGuire. This position was created by Melnyk specifically for someone with McGuire’s experience so it’s doubtful that will be the case, and any duties he had can be picked up by the rest of the hockey operations department.

This is a pivotal summer for the organization to make the right moves to get the Senators in the mix for a playoff spot next season. The club would like to add a top-six forward to play on the right side of Tim Stuetzle.

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Twitter: @sungarrioch

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